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This stuff is always a joke. Who knows what his actual job is but any time you see these articles they immediately start with long sections of all the hacks &

This stuff is always a joke. Who knows what his actual job is but any time you see these articles they immediately start with long sections of all the hacks & work needed to make the basics work. Battery Life Issues Getting a mouse to work Getting displays to work Wifi Issues Fixing keyboard mapping issues You're not supposed to have to waste your time on this stuff. It's been about 3 years since I tried to make a laptop work for actual work with Linux. It didn't work well. The last time I successfully did so was from 1996-1999. Linux itself has improved immensely, but the pain of getting a laptop actually functioning is still pretty terrible. The thing is 20 years ago the Windows and Mac laptops weren't seemless either.. Linux wasn't that bad in comparison. In the meantime Linux hasn't kept up. It's all fine if the goal is to mess with linux or contribute to linux. You learn a lot and have fun. If you've gotta be contributing to some other piece of software someone else is paying you to work on it's not fun. It's too bad cause my job is working on software that's only supported on Linux. It'd all be great if we just used desktop linux workstations, but everyone seems to want to use notebook computers today.

lambda_obrien 6y ago
You can't just install OSX on any PC, so why would you think Linux would be that way? I purchased a System76 and have zero issues with anything. I use a Toshiba for work also running Pop OS, and it has some minor issues, but I expect that because it wasn't designed for Linux like my personal laptop. Everyone wants their cake and eat it too, they complain about lock-in, complain about Apple's phone-home features (last week!), and then they just say "well Linux is hard to setup once, so I don't want to try" and punt the issue. If you want a good and easy Linux PC, then buy a PC designed for Linux, like you would a Macbook.
tristan957 6y ago
Get hardware that supports Linux. I have setup many laptops over the years without a single hick-up.
ralph87 6y ago
If you buy a matched OS + laptop in any other situation, why not also for Linux? Buy an XPS next time, or any other vendor (Lenovo?) with tested hardware, and just put an Ubuntu USB stick in. "I bought the top result for 'wheel' on eBay and ruined my life trying to fit it to this aircraft engine, this is such a joke!" Shit has just worked for years if you want it to work.
- ben7799 6y ago
  I did this through a pilot program through our IT department. Years ago when I wasn't full time employed I used to do a lot of linux and send patches when stuff was broken, etc.. We used both XPSes and System 76 machines. A whole bunch of money was spent. All the software dev tools are great. The problem is the linux machines running batteries out when you try to go do a webex in a conference room with a customer whereas a Mac would barely even drain the battery at all. Or the linux stuff has a major FUBAR issue with the specific VPN your company uses and you need. Or the linux stuff has trouble with some security related config on the specific Wifi setup in the building. Or gnome/unity needing a reboot after unplugging external monitors and trying to walk off to a meeting. It's all that stuff. People who run stuff at home (like I did) have great flexibility to swap out the hardware and software that don't work well with Linux. It's much much harder in the corporate environment. Both the XPSes and the System76 work awesome if you leave them permanently on a desk.. they don't work as replacements for MBPs in our environment. I was making it work and hacking away at fixes for various broken things in linux for a while. And then I realized it was killing my productivity and I just took the linux laptop back and asked to have another MBP.
offtop5 6y ago
I used to buy a laptop, try to get Ubuntu or Arch to work and if it didn't work flawlessly I'd take it back. If Ubuntu doesn't feel like working out of the box on your laptop your in for a world of pain. Now I need a Mac to compile for IOS devices anyway so I ordered an M1 Pro.
thotsBgone 6y ago
How to use Windows on my laptop: - Just use it. How to use Linux on my laptop: - Spend several weeks debugging everything you could imagine. Find a file posted by one of the laptop engineers to a random forum, which you need for internet to work on the laptop at all. Give up on things like getting the touch screen working properly. Give up on using the laptop and spend most of your time on your desktop.
- nix23 6y ago
  Man you really should buy better laptops, i had at least 6 laptops with linux and never had a problem with "internet" and "debugging" and "touchscreen". Maybe Linux just hates you ;)
hacknat 6y ago
I've been running Fedora on a Thinkpad for 10 years and I haven't had to do any of the things you just listed other than remapping CapsLock to Ctrl, but that was trivial to do. There are definitely use cases that Linux hasn't kept up on, but the mature distros cover a lot of use cases now without even needing to touch the command line. IMO, if you can't work with a mature Linux distro (not Gentoo or some other Flavor-of-the-day) then you're not very good with computers. I've noticed a lot of people who make the transition to Linux often try to make it a learning experience, which is the wrong approach. If you're willing to go the vanilla route (Fedora or Ubuntu) and do some mild research on recommended laptops for those distros you'll be fine.
- jodrellblank 6y ago
  > if you can't work with a mature Linux distro (not Gentoo or some other Flavor-of-the-day) Mate, Gentoo is twenty years old, has a board of trustees, a council, a non-profit foundation, and is the distro Google Chromebook ChromeOS was forked from. Through that it's quite likely the most used laptop consumer Linux in the West, especially in terms of working WiFi and such. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gentoo_Linux https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gentoo_Linux https://wiki.installgentoo.com/index.php/ChromeOS https://wiki.installgentoo.com/index.php/ChromeOS
brundolf 6y ago
One thing I've found is that it helps a lot if your company has an IT department. You outsource the headaches to someone whose job it is to deal with them instead of pulling yourself away from your work, they can maintain a standard image that works on the company's standard workstation machines, etc.
okl 6y ago
Let's be honest: most of the tweaks in this blog are personal preference. It also says nothing about Wifi.
varispeed 6y ago
I had such experience with Mac. It seems like for every little thing you want to do you need to install an app. This prompted me to check out Linux. I got XPS 13 and Linux installation was smooth and everything worked just fine out of the box.

lambda_obrien 6y ago

You can't just install OSX on any PC, so why would you think Linux would be that way? I purchased a System76 and have zero issues with anything. I use a Toshiba for work also running Pop OS, and it has some minor issues, but I expect that because it wasn't designed for Linux like my personal laptop. Everyone wants their cake and eat it too, they complain about lock-in, complain about Apple's phone-home features (last week!), and then they just say "well Linux is hard to setup once, so I don't want to try" and punt the issue. If you want a good and easy Linux PC, then buy a PC designed for Linux, like you would a Macbook.

tristan957 6y ago

Get hardware that supports Linux. I have setup many laptops over the years without a single hick-up.

ralph87 6y ago

If you buy a matched OS + laptop in any other situation, why not also for Linux? Buy an XPS next time, or any other vendor (Lenovo?) with tested hardware, and just put an Ubuntu USB stick in. "I bought the top result for 'wheel' on eBay and ruined my life trying to fit it to this aircraft engine, this is such a joke!" Shit has just worked for years if you want it to work.

ben7799 6y ago
I did this through a pilot program through our IT department. Years ago when I wasn't full time employed I used to do a lot of linux and send patches when stuff was broken, etc.. We used both XPSes and System 76 machines. A whole bunch of money was spent. All the software dev tools are great. The problem is the linux machines running batteries out when you try to go do a webex in a conference room with a customer whereas a Mac would barely even drain the battery at all. Or the linux stuff has a major FUBAR issue with the specific VPN your company uses and you need. Or the linux stuff has trouble with some security related config on the specific Wifi setup in the building. Or gnome/unity needing a reboot after unplugging external monitors and trying to walk off to a meeting. It's all that stuff. People who run stuff at home (like I did) have great flexibility to swap out the hardware and software that don't work well with Linux. It's much much harder in the corporate environment. Both the XPSes and the System76 work awesome if you leave them permanently on a desk.. they don't work as replacements for MBPs in our environment. I was making it work and hacking away at fixes for various broken things in linux for a while. And then I realized it was killing my productivity and I just took the linux laptop back and asked to have another MBP.

offtop5 6y ago

I used to buy a laptop, try to get Ubuntu or Arch to work and if it didn't work flawlessly I'd take it back. If Ubuntu doesn't feel like working out of the box on your laptop your in for a world of pain. Now I need a Mac to compile for IOS devices anyway so I ordered an M1 Pro.

thotsBgone 6y ago

How to use Windows on my laptop: - Just use it. How to use Linux on my laptop: - Spend several weeks debugging everything you could imagine. Find a file posted by one of the laptop engineers to a random forum, which you need for internet to work on the laptop at all. Give up on things like getting the touch screen working properly. Give up on using the laptop and spend most of your time on your desktop.

nix23 6y ago
Man you really should buy better laptops, i had at least 6 laptops with linux and never had a problem with "internet" and "debugging" and "touchscreen". Maybe Linux just hates you ;)

hacknat 6y ago

I've been running Fedora on a Thinkpad for 10 years and I haven't had to do any of the things you just listed other than remapping CapsLock to Ctrl, but that was trivial to do. There are definitely use cases that Linux hasn't kept up on, but the mature distros cover a lot of use cases now without even needing to touch the command line. IMO, if you can't work with a mature Linux distro (not Gentoo or some other Flavor-of-the-day) then you're not very good with computers. I've noticed a lot of people who make the transition to Linux often try to make it a learning experience, which is the wrong approach. If you're willing to go the vanilla route (Fedora or Ubuntu) and do some mild research on recommended laptops for those distros you'll be fine.

jodrellblank 6y ago
> if you can't work with a mature Linux distro (not Gentoo or some other Flavor-of-the-day) Mate, Gentoo is twenty years old, has a board of trustees, a council, a non-profit foundation, and is the distro Google Chromebook ChromeOS was forked from. Through that it's quite likely the most used laptop consumer Linux in the West, especially in terms of working WiFi and such. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gentoo_Linux https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gentoo_Linux https://wiki.installgentoo.com/index.php/ChromeOS https://wiki.installgentoo.com/index.php/ChromeOS

brundolf 6y ago

One thing I've found is that it helps a lot if your company has an IT department. You outsource the headaches to someone whose job it is to deal with them instead of pulling yourself away from your work, they can maintain a standard image that works on the company's standard workstation machines, etc.

okl 6y ago

Let's be honest: most of the tweaks in this blog are personal preference. It also says nothing about Wifi.

varispeed 6y ago

I had such experience with Mac. It seems like for every little thing you want to do you need to install an app. This prompted me to check out Linux. I got XPS 13 and Linux installation was smooth and everything worked just fine out of the box.